Winding down

It is Friday morning here and things are winding down. Wednesday's cases did okay but one had to go back to the or thurs. we also did another complete tet repair and a double chamber RV, both older kids. The icu has 4 patients remaining all who are doing well and should be to the wards by tomorrow.
I am tired and having a mild RA flare up but still holding up. Marek found some new meds here for me to try :) This 2 weeks has been long but it is nice to be here and get so much accomplished. Russ said we have done more congenital cases this week than so far this year in Kenya.
Today Mary and John are working with us in the unit..they are two of my favorites. Mary is all about tough love.. When we asked if she would be here when we come back next year she said yes as long as Christ has not come by then. And John has some awesome phrases too. They both work hard and want to learn a lot.
We will spend the next bit of time inventorying. We gave the nurses a bunch of gifts today for their children which was fun and will save the passing out gifts on the wards for the nightshift crew. Ate some ugali at the canteen. Not much going on here. Part of me is ready to come home mostly to sleep and get some rest but the other part of me could stay here forever. So much joy and difficulty but good. This year I have had a harder time realizing how many people we cant help while we are here...we could do surgery for weeks and not run out of patients! It is hard when you put sweet faces with the hearts and names connected to them. But god knows each of them and their hearts and what their lives will look like.